@ S.A. Zhabotynska.
General linguistics: A lecture course for graduate students.
Cherkasy: Bohdan Khmelnistky National University in Cherkasy, 2015
Lecture 3 language and the brain / mind
Plan
Cognitive studies of language as a part of cognitive science
Neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and cognitive linguistics
NEUROLINGUISTICS
3.1. Fields of research
3.2. Language areas. Aphasias
3.3. Linguistic function in the brain
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Child language
Language of adults
COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS
The internalized language: formal and semantic aspects
(cognitive linguistics vs. generative grammar)
Objectives, data, and methodology of cognitive linguistics.
Conceptual analysis
Conceptual analysis vs. semantic analysis
Conceptual structures and cognitive structures
C
ognitive
map
Cognitive
studies of language
NEUROLINGUISTICS Language
BRAIN
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Language
MIND
COGNITIVE
LINGUISTICS Mind
LANGUAGE
3.1.
Fields of research4.1. Internalized language
‘Growing’
of language Origin
of
language Rules
of
child
language Learning word
meanings
Recognizing
words Understanding
syntax Slips of the tongue3.1. Child language
3.2. Language of adults
FORMAL ASPECT
Generative
grammar
SEMANTIC ASPECT
Cognitive
linguistics
3.2.
Language areas. Aphasias.
4.2.Objectives,
data,
methodology. Conceptual
analysis
4.3.
Conceptual analysis
vs.
semantic analysis
3.3.
Linguistic function
in
the brain
4.4.
Conceptual and cognitive structures
1. Cognitive studies of language as a part of cognitive science
Cognitive studies of language aim to expose how language is represented in the human brain and mind. These studies are performed by neurolonguistics, psycholinguistics, and cognitive linguistics that, taken together, make up a constitutive part of cognitive science. The latter is a federation of various disciplines which attempt to explain how the brain and mind of humans and other living organisms work with information. While solving this problem, each discipline focuses on particular data and applies specific techniques of investigation. Cognitive studies of language focus on that information which can be represented with various linguistic signs.
The disciplines that form cognitive science can be subdivided into those which are theoretically and technologically oriented. (1) The disciplines pursuing the theoretical goal of understanding how the brain and mind acquire, process, store, and retrieve information, are: neuroscience and neurolinguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, semiotics, and logic. (2) The disciplines pursuing the technological goal of developing theories applicable in simulating the workings of the brain/mind in the computer, are: the systems theory (the study of systems in general), computer science (the study of the structure, expression, and mechanization of the algorithms that underlie different aspects of the work with information), information theory (the study of quantification of information), Artificial Intelligence theory (the study of computers and computer software capable of intelligent behavior), and knowledge engineering (that refers to all technical, scientific and social aspects involved in building, maintaining and using knowledge-based systems). Both groups constantly interact: they share methodologies, and use the insights of one another in exploring the phenomenon of the brain/mind (Fig. 3.1).
Within the interdisciplinary paradigm of cognitive science, cognitive studies of language play one of the most conspicuous roles because language, as a semiotic system used in human cognition and communication, immediately relates to information, and thus it provides the researchers with lots of empirical data.